From the show-stopping dresses to the lavish after-party, a big fat gypsy wedding is all a girl can dream of.

But for one traveler girl, her big day plans were shattered into a thousand pieces when she was viciously attacked the night before her wedding by an enraged aunt who slashed her face after her furor at not receiving an invite.

17-year-old Dimples McPhee was left scarred for life when her mother's sister Philomena Doherty travelled from Birmingham to Dimples' hometown of Cleland, Lankarshire and savagely attacked her with a Stanley knife.

Gypsy bride Dimples McPhee outside court with her mother Anne after attacker Philomena was found guilty of the assault

Dimples was relishing in pre-wedding day bliss as she prepared to wed her fiance John Connor.

Her father had splashed out on a lavish wedding ceremony and reception for 270 guests at Norton House Hotel Edinburgh featuring a gorgeous wedding dress and delectable 2,100 Cinderella castle cake.

But rather than spending the day before she was to tie the knot enjoying a pampering session with bridesmaids, Dimples was in an emergency ward having emergency plastic surgery to save her face.

The savage attack took place outside her family home the night before her wedding where Dimples and her mother Anne were subject to the wrath of Philomena.

Philomena had travelled from Birmingham and was furious that she hadn't received a hard copy invite to her niece's wedding.

Despite being reassured that family members were obviously invited without needing a physical invitation, in a state of rage, Philomena launched an attack on her sister and niece, dragging 33-year-old Anne across the driveway by her hair before cutting her arm.

Philomena Dohety slashed her niece in the face with a knife after she didn't received an invite to the wedding

She then lashed out at bride-to-be Dimples, pulling a knife from her bra and slashing her face and cheek.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror about the terrible attack, mother Anne said: 'Her face just fell off. I thought she was going to die. To see your child's face torn off the night before the wedding is a pain no mother deserves.'

Following the vicious assault, Dimples' father Billy, 37, drover her to Wilshaw General hospital in the brand new Audi A4 they had given her for her seventeenth birthday.

Following the surgery and fearful that her fiance would leave her, Dimples discharged herself from hospital four days later and insisted on going ahead with the delayed service.

Plastering over her heavy scar with makeup and concealing her blood-stained hair, Dimples wed her fiance in what should have been the happiest day of her life.

Dimples described her wedding day as the day from hell, and now has to wear her hair with a fringe to conceal her deep scar

'I would describe my wedding as the day from hell. I was devastated. I felt like a nobody walking up the aisle. My aunt ruined my dream. I'll never forget that until the day she dies.'

31-year-old Doherty, who is pregnant, was convicted for the assault last week at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Scotland.

For Dimples, who has to live with the scars of the attack, it was the outcome she had been waiting for ever since the horrific attack last August.

Not only did the attack ruin Dimples' wedding day, it also cast a dark shadow over her honeymoon in Tenerife, where she spent most of the time indoors sheltered from the sun to avoid the agony of her scars in the heat.

Even a year on, she is still finding it hard to come to terms with what happened but she is trying to put the past behind her and is delighted to be pregnant with her first child.

'This baby is a new chapter and will help us move on from this nightmare,' she said.

Philomena was convicted of assault last week at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Scotland, and is due to be sentenced for her crime next month.